Suffolk IDA delivers tax breaks for Deliver My Meds

Home stretch: The owner of busy pharmacies in Brooklyn and Nassau will be able to deliver medications to more regional homes, thanks to his new Hauppauge distribution facility (and a Suffolk IDA tax-abatement deal).

October 29, 2018

By GREGORY ZELLER //

The IDA has issued preliminary approval of an economic-incentives package that will help the owner of a series of local pharmacies in Brooklyn and Long Island grow a new corporation designed specifically to receive, prepare and ship prescription orders, all from a new facility on Oser Avenue in Hauppauge.

That’s where recent startup Deliver My Meds Corp. has hung its shingle, under the guiding hand of President Shahbaz Chaudhary, who owns thriving pharmacies in Brooklyn, Valley Stream and Syosset.

Deliver My Meds, which officially launched in August, is investing $4.9 million in the purchase and renovation of a 20,000-square-foot distribution facillity – covering two acres in the Hauppauge Industrial Park – and has received a boost from the Suffolk IDA to help make it happen.

The tax-abatement package – including sales-tax breaks on the purchase of necessary equipment, a mortgage-recording tax benefit and 10 years of reduced property taxes – only received preliminary approval at the IDA’s Oct. 25 meeting, and must still be reviewed and officially approved by IDA officials.

But both the development agency and Chaudhary are already playing past that, with the entrepreneur declaring “we couldn’t be more excited to partner with the Suffolk IDA in this much-needed move to keep up with the demand for our products and services.”

And the IDA is “pleased to support Deliver My Meds Corp.’s launch in Suffolk County,” noted Industrial Development Agency Executive Director Tony Catapano, who said the arrival of the pharma-logistics operation “will have a positive tax impact on our communities while creating new jobs for Long Islanders” – 27 new jobs, to be precise, according to the IDA.

“This company is the latest in a trend of businesses moving to Suffolk County to increase their competitive edge,” Catapano added.

While dozens of new jobs are part of the mix, Deliver My Meds will rely heavily on robotics to count, label and package three-to-six-month supplies of prescription medications for patients “who prefer receiving their medication through mail services,” the IDA said in a statement.

That’s an especially promising notion for elderly populations. While both Chaudhary and the IDA acknowledged an industry-wide shift from in-person retail sales to mail-order sales, the IDA singled out older customers as a particular Deliver My Meds target audience.

The IDA incentives package will increase the startup’s “distribution operations and overall fulfillment capabilities,” the IDA added, “greatly enhanc(ing) Chaudhary’s ability to meet the needs of his customers” between Brooklyn and Long Island.

The entrepreneurial pharmacist could have chosen to launch Deliver My Meds anywhere in that corridor, but the Suffolk IDA made sure Chaudhary realized the benefits of bringing the new distribution operation out east – where both customers and skilled workers are available in bunches, according to Industrial Development Agency Deputy Executive Director Kelly Morris.

“The addition of Deliver My Meds Corp. to the Hauppauge Industrial Park is the latest company to take advantage of the booming pharmaceutical industry in Suffolk County,” Morris said in a statement. “Their move is a natural fit as more and more Long Islanders possess the skills needed to fill the soon-to-be-created positions and operate the equipment that keeps the company running.”